Konstanze Klosterhalfen wins half marathon in Valencia

KOnstanze Klosterhalfen threw up his hands over his head after crossing the finish line and then waved a broad grin to the audience. After her successful half marathon debut, the German running ace had every reason to be happy. “I’m very surprised and excited about what I achieved today,” said the Leverkusen native.

Klosterhalfen won her first race over 21.0975 kilometers in 1:05.41 hours in Valencia on Sunday. The exceptional athlete ran the third best time ever set by a European and triumphed as the first non-African runner since 2003 at the half marathon in the Spanish port city.

Klosterhalfen wants to break the German record

The European champion over 5000 meters on the fast course was only 23 seconds short of the German record set by Melat Kejeta, who took second place at the 2020 Half Marathon World Championships in 1:05:18 hours. Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands holds the European record (1:05.15).

“I couldn’t have picked a better race to start with,” said Klosterhalfen and immediately set his sights on the next goal: “I’ll try to improve my time at the next half marathon.”

The 25-year-old ran an even race and prevailed in front of the Ethiopians Tsigie Gebreselama (1:05.45) and Hawi Feysa (1:06:00). She only lost a bit of time in the last three kilometers: “I’ll work on that in the next race and hopefully I can then break the German record.”

Klosterhalfen had surprisingly won gold over 5000 meters at the European Championships in Munich. She then prepared for her debut in Spain at an altitude training camp in Kenya. “I’m a bit excited, but I’m also happy,” she said beforehand.